The invention relates to a mouldering shoe for use at the root of a planted seedling or a natural seedling according to the the introductory chapter of patent claim 1.
Previously known from the Finnish patent number 68494 is a protective sheet placed on the ground around the plant stem. In the sheet centre there is a hole and from the shield edge to the hole a slit is cut enabling the sheet to be mounted around the plant without threading. The sheet contains fertilizer soluble in soil.
The disadvantage of a protective sheet as per the above publication is that the sheet doesn""t remain reliably on the ground. As a square flat sheet it does not follow the forms of the ground. Under it there are shelters for moles. For instance, no materials can stay on the smooth sheet surface by windy weather. The sheet material is brittle and breaks easily even though its hard and then the centre hole edge can cause damage to the plant bottom by their mutual motion.
By means of a plant shoe as per this invention the above problems are solved. The invention is characterized in that the shoe is made of a stiff sheet, convex upward and the convex portion containing channels or pockets to collect materials. Other features-characterizing the invention are disclosed in the subclaims.
The advantage of the invention is that the cuplike up-side-down convex form prevents the wind to grasp the shoe. Further, the channels, pockets or cavities on the convex surface collect water, litter from trees, such as needles, and remnants of soil and plants as ballast onto the plant shoe. Thanks to its water-collecting forms, the protective shoe retains moisture much longer, whereat different kinds of additional substances are conveniently dissolved in the soil as nutrients for the plant.
The triangular form is advantageous by fitting the shoe, since it enables turning the shoe in different positions according to the hindrances in and also the roughness of the terrain. It is also always possible to get all three sheet corners against the ground, at least on tilting the sheet. In the sheet material there are fibre bonds, which get weaker when wet, whereat the sheet sinks against the ground and adheres to some spots in the ground. The channels, cavities and pockets still remain on the surface.